


Slipping Deeper, Sinking Like a Stone

by emchewchew



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BB8 is an Orca, F/M, Free Willy AU, Gentle Kylo Ren, HEA Guaranteed, Kylo is 29ish, Kylo wants to smooch Rey's freckles, Rey is 19, Scavenger Rey (Star Wars), Slow Burn, a tiny bit of angst, and shes so clueless, animal rights activist Leia, he fell so hard, hux is adorkable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emchewchew/pseuds/emchewchew
Summary: "Armie says they have their own language. Each of the pods." Rey glances over at Kylo. He isn't looking down at Beebee or even anywhere in the park. He's turned towards the bay, eyes fixed firmly on the horizon where the moon hangs low over the water."These...fish? How," Kylo drawls, "would Armitage even know something like that?"Rey sighs, ignoring his fish comment. "Armie has all these recordings of them, and he says each pod has its own set of calls and answers. Even from across the bay, they'd know if their brother or sister needed them. It's....amazing, really." Rey is exhausted after the day she's had, but she smiles softly as she continues."They have such a strong...connection. They'd never leave anyone behind. They're there for each other," her voice grows quiet. "Like a family."Kylo scoffs and runs his eyes over Rey's face. There's an aching sort of pain in his gaze. "Families," he spits out as if it were a vulgar word, "can and do leave each other behind. Sometimes that's what's best. Leaving the past behind. Killing it if you have to."TL;DR It's a Free Willy AU with a HEA. Rey is Jesse, BB8 is Willy, and Kylo fits in here too, promise. Pinky promise.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 14
Kudos: 12





	Slipping Deeper, Sinking Like a Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hi lovely reader~
> 
> This is my first time writing fanfic ever, so please be kind uwu. This AU was born of two things I hold very close to my heart, and I hope it's a fun little ride in the wake of TROS. If you've seen Free Willy, some of the scenes in this fic will absolutely be familiar, and I hope that's a nice throwback for you. If you haven't seen it, its currently on Netflix if you'd like an idea of the setting of this fic.
> 
> I plan to post at least weekly and the chapter count is so tentative. Like the most tentative thing ever. I dont really know what I'm doing here, but I'll let you know if the plan changes at all. A special thank you to my wonderful beta, Elle, for helping make my mess coherent and readable!!
> 
> The title is from a James Bay song called "I Found You". 
> 
> I'll hush now, but if you like it, leave me a comment mayhaps? Thank you for reading!  
> 

“Ten bucks says it’s chocolate.”

“Phas, that is  _ clearly _ a vanilla cake. There’s white frosting and blue letters. There’s even some delicate little...flowers or something. Who’d pay for a chocolate cake with such lame ass decoration? It’d be an insult to chocolate cake, really,” Rey says, shaking her head as she pulls up a corner of the chain-link fence surrounding the skate park. Phasma ducks under, carefully clutching the box holding the cake in question.

“If you’re so damn sure, let’s shake on it. I could stand to eat a real meal I didn’t have to swipe.”

Rey ignores the offer and just follows her friend along the fence to their spot near the halfpipe. She adjusts her overalls strap for the twentieth time that night and mentally adds “buckle” to her list of things to scavenge next time she heads back to the strip mall over on 8th. Her overalls have lots of pockets for stuffing little finds, and she can wear them with any of the four shirts she keeps in the back of the Subaru she shares with Phasma. Plus, denim is durable. Long-lasting. The kind of thing Rey appreciates.

“Well?? We doin this or what, Niima?” Phasma asks.

“I think we should forget this stupid bet and just enjoy the cake, Phasma Anne.”

A gasp. “I thought you agreed to never, ever, under any circumstances, even breathe that name again. To any living soul. Me included,” Phasma grumbles. Rey shrugs, trying not to smirk as she goes to grab a hunk of the cake. Phasma swats her hand away.

“Fine.  _ Fine. _ I’ll let it go, but only because  _ you _ ,” Phasma points at Rey, “were the one to catch that catering van. Idiots. Leaving their doors wiiiiide open…. ripe for the picking, as they say.”

Rey grins. It  _ had _ been a lucky find.

“Here’s to you, kid!” Phasma reaches to grab a hunk of the cake. “Bone apple tea!”

The smooshed cake in Phasma’s raised hand is mostly frosting, but the cake beneath is clearly vanilla. The two young women make eye contact. Rey snorts.

“Don’t say a word,” Phasma yells over Rey’s laughter. “Not one word, Niima! I mean it, or else I’ll tell Klaud it was you who took his board.”

Rey winces. She hadn’t technically known it was Klaud’s board and she’d needed to make some extra cash so she could afford new sneakers. Rey doesn’t  _ enjoy _ taking things from others, but her life has taught her necessity cares little about how she feels. You do what you need to do and you keep moving on. 

“Speak of the devil,” Phasma says and nods towards the front of the skate park. Rey turns as she takes her first bite of cake. Headed their way is all six-foot, four inches of spiky-haired, scraggly bearded Klaud Trodome. Rey doesn’t have many friends (in fact, she really only has one), but Klaud had proven himself loyal in the past. The foster care system hadn’t been kind to Rey. On the bad nights when Unkar came home wanting a fight, Rey could usually find Klaud at one of his usual haunts and he’d know of a safe, (usually) warm place for her stay the night. She’s grateful for that. 

“Hey hey! Here’s my gorgeous girls!” Klaud says as he saunters over to them. “Phasma, I see you’ve gone with pink hair this time around, it really pulls the whole look together. Its….chic, babe. Very chic.”

Phasma rolls her eyes. “What do you want, Klaud?” 

Klaud gasps and throws a hand on his chest, as though he’s actually offended. “That is just,” he blubbers, “well it is just...absolutely cruel! Uncalled for. I like your hair, I tell you so, and you assume I’m fishing. Really, Phasma Anne, I thought you knew me better tha--” He’s interrupted by Phasma’s growl. 

“REY, WHEN DID YOU TELL THIS--”

“Really, Phasma, enough of the dramatics!” Klaud cries, shushing Phasma. “Rey had nothing to do with this. I have my own sources. Don’t throw my girl under the bus for this. It’s not her fault, now is it, dear?” Phasma settles down and stuffs another bite of cake in her mouth, ignoring the streak of frosting that has somehow ended up above her right eyebrow.

“By the way, Rey, how’d that thrift shop on 42nd go? You get some good stuff? My buddy seemed to think it’d be a good place for someone with your...abilities.”

“It went well. Got a good haul. Thanks for the tip, Klaud.” Rey has always seen through Klaud’s antics. There’s always someone like Klaud, anyway. He walks around like he’s never met a stranger, but she knows you can’t be everyone’s friend. It’s why she holds him at arm’s length, no matter how grateful she is for his help.

“Of course, of course. It’s what I’m here for,” he smiles and Rey is suddenly struck with the question of whether or not any of his overgrown mustache hairs ever get caught in his teeth. Ew. New train of thought…new train...Klaud slaps Phasma on the back and pulls Rey out of her wondering. “Isn’t that right, Phas?”

“Klaud, we appreciate you, we’re happy to see you, and you’re welcome to this cake if you’d like, but if you don’t get to the damn point…” Phasma warns.

“Okay, okay, I do maybe have a teeny tiny favor to ask,” he admits as he reaches for the last untouched corner of the cake.

Rey braces herself. Klaud’s little favors can range from the simple to the outrageous and there’s no telling which one this is. Or if it’s legal.

“All I need is for someone to head down to the docks and pick me up a little something from one of the fish vendors down there.”

Phasma and Rey share a look. “A little something, hmm, Klaud? How little we talking? Which vendor?” Rey asks. This is the kind of job she tends to go for. Besides, Phasma has a thing about the docks. 

“Oh it’s just a little bitty flash drive, darling, one of those computer sticks, ya know, and it’s Sal you’ll be looking for. His stand is across the way from that coffee shop. Domenico’s. Ya know the one?” He asks. Rey nods. She’s passed by a few times. 

“Perfect. He’ll be expecting you tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. bright and early. Don’t be late. Sal doesn’t deal well with tardiness. Ask for the Wednesday Special.” Klaud wipes his frosting covered hands on his cargo shorts. “I’m counting on you Rey. I’ll meet you here at 9 a.m. to pick up the flash drive.” 

“Got it. I’ll be here,” Rey says. She has the information she needs. She won’t ask any questions.

Klaud stands up and congratulates Phasma on her hair once again before saying his goodbyes and walking off to no doubt find some other group of “friends” to chat with. Rey breathes a sigh of relief. She doesn’t like feeling as though she owes anyone anything, but Klaud found her and Phas the place they’ve been staying lately. One more favor done for him means she’ll sleep a little easier feeling as though the debt is that much closer to being paid. One day, she won’t owe him anything. She isn’t sure, yet, how she’ll get there, but god, does she dream of the day.

“You think we can store this in the fridge without Teedo finding it?” Phasma asks. Teedo, the guy who lives in the other room of their current apartment, is mostly harmless, except for when it comes to food. He seems to think anything that graces their shared fridge is fair game, no matter how many times Rey yells at him. She’s not really a yeller, you see, but it's  _ her _ food, not Teedo’s. It’s not that complicated or unreasonable, she had insisted to him the night before. Loudly. At 3 a.m. To Phasma’s dismay. For the fourth time that week. 

“We can keep it in the fridge, but I wouldn’t expect it to last long. Enjoy it now while you can,” Rey suggests as she gathers their coats and things lying around. 

Phasma and Rey head to their apartment and store the cake in numerous bowls in the fridge. Rey writes 9 separate notes to label the bowls as hers, knowing full well that Teedo will steal at least 3 of them. Phasma is already asleep on her air mattress in their shared room when Rey walks in after using the bathroom. As she pins the blanket up over the window in the corner, Rey pauses to take in the view from their room. Their apartment may be coming apart at the seams and the locks may be shoddy at best, but the building does sit atop a hill overlooking the bay. Hanna City never really sleeps, but the dark expanse of endless water Rey stares at is still and quiet in a way that hushes the worries in her mind. She takes a deep breath, relishing in this momentary peace and then finishes pinning the blanket before making her way over to her own air mattress by the door. She curls up in her sleeping bag and falls asleep to memories of warm days by the beach and a woman with her eyes and a smile more soul-crushing than any view Rey’s seen outside her memory.

* * *

The morning comes before Rey is ready for it. She gets up and moves around her room quietly, finding a different shirt to wear under her overalls today. She wonders if it’ll rain, but she grabs her yellow raincoat anyway. She’s planning on biking to the docks and it would be awful to get caught biking in the rain without it. She did that once and was sick for a week after. Never again, she vowed.

By the time she grabs a hunk of cake for breakfast and is on her bike headed towards the water, it’s nearly 7:15 a.m. She’ll have to be quick to make it on time to meet Sal, so she pedals faster. She rides through downtown, around the basketball arena, and past the entrance to Ocean Adventure Park. She makes it to Domenico’s with just four minutes to spare and takes a moment to catch her breath before crossing the street to find Sal’s stall.

There’s a pretty decent crowd already milling around the fish market, so she decides to risk it for the sake of time and leaves her bike leaning against a tree right near the edge of the dock. She heads into the throng of people and pushes through until she finds the sign for Sal’s. Deep breaths, Rey, you’re supposed to be here, she reminds herself. Get the job done, then go home. Easy. She approaches the bald man wearing an apron standing beside the stall. 

“Sal?” 

“That’ll be me, little lady,” the man greets her. He winks. “What can I get for ya?”

“I’d just like the Wednesday Special, please,” Rey tells him. Sal’s eyebrows raise for just a moment. Then he smiles. He has a kind smile, Rey thinks. Too bad she can’t bring herself to trust anyone involved with Klaud. She shifts a little uneasily on her feet as an awkward pause ensues.

“Ah, I’ve got one right here for ya,” Sal finally declares before plopping a huge fish down onto a scale. He goes about his business, writing something down, then wrapping the fish up with what Rey thinks is a copious amount of paper. “That’s it, hun. Enjoy!”

Rey’s thoroughly confused. She doesn’t want to cause problems, and she knows these things don’t always go the way she plans. She also knows, however, that she was meant to be picking up a flash drive. Not a fish. Sal must see the confusion all over her face. He squints a little at her before smiling mischievously. 

“Ahem,” Sal grunts as he peels back part of the paper by the fish’s head. He squeezes the jaws on the fish ever so gently. As he does so, Rey just barely catches glimpse of something that could very well be a flash drive. Her relief is almost palpable, and Sal laughs. “On your way, then, huh? I got other customers to help,” he says, patting her on her back. 

Satisfied that she’s getting the job done, Rey rewraps the fish head and turns to head back to her bike. Her bike...that is currently being…moved. Stolen, she realizes. By some teenager. 

“Oi!” Rey shouts, sprinting for the end of the dock. She clutches the fish to her chest and runs full speed towards the little idiot trying to take her bike. The guy looks right at her and whatever he sees in her face is enough to force him to freeze, just for a moment. Whatever mental calculations he must have been doing in regards to his odds of winning a fight with the petite fireball charging at him lead him to drop the bike and run. 

Rey is distracted with her little victory so much so that she fails to recognize that a chunk of the wood making up the dock she’s hurtling down is missing. Her foot catches in the hole, and her moment of victory goes careening downhill as her leg smashes into a post. The trajectory of the rest of her body is shifted  _ just _ slightly enough that before she realizes what’s happening, she and the flash drive and fish she’s holding are falling towards the water below the docks. 

Rey braces for the cold water of the bay, but it never comes. Instead, she is jerked back by the straps of her overalls and falls against….a warm refrigerator? That’s what this big wall of...heat seems like to her. Wait. No. Everything is happening so fast, but is this...is this a person? Rey realizes she’s clinging to the jacket of a man at about the same moment that said man realizes he's got his arm wrapped around the random woman he’s just snatched away from the side of the dock. They both pull away abruptly, each righting their own clothing and making sure their belongings didn’t fall into the water. Someone groans. 

“God. Are you...alright?” the someone asks her. A man. That’s a man’s voice. A man’s deep, deep voice.

“No,” Rey says as she finishes examining herself and the fish, which was apparently much luckier in this whole event than she was. The fish and flash drive are whole and dry, but she’s got a long gash running down her shin. “My leg’s bleeding,” she adds. Rey looks up at the man with the deep voice.

“No? Well, I can…” Suddenly, she isn’t hearing what this man is saying. There’s too much to look at. The soft waves in his hair that’s the kind of dark that eats up the light. The glasses. She always thought that big round style couldn’t look anything but ugly, but on him, they look- he looks...like he knows what he’s doing. Like he knows who he is. What he’s about. There’s also the nose. It’s maybe a bit large. Would it squish up, though, if he were to run it along her cheek? It would, she knows. And those eyes. No one talks about brown eyes. They should. The...the poets. They should. Write about them, she thinks. They are...so deep. It’s like looking at the bay, these eyes. They’re worried, she realizes. Almost as though he’s--

“What?” Rey asks, snapping out of...whatever that was.

“You’re bleeding.”

“Right, yeah, we established that one. Listen, mister--”

“You shouldn’t be bleeding.”

“I mean, okay, no, but I kind of have somewhere to be.”

“Somewhere...else?” he asks. As though the answer isn’t obvious. His eyes are running all around her face. She wishes they’d stop. All this looking is making her feel...something. Warm, maybe. What is happening.

He’s digging in his backpack. “I think I have a band-aid in here or...tissues. Something.”

“Oh um. Sir. Mister. Um. I’m really okay. I just. I need to go?”

This time he looks up at her. Right in the eyes. “Go? Right. Right, of course.” He zips his backpack shut. What’s this guy with those glasses and that backpack doing on these docks, anyway?

Rey turns to make sure her bike is still there, lying right where that little thief had left it. She looks back at stranger man. He’s looking at her…legs? The blood, probably. 

“I’ll be fine, but thanks for...saving me,” Rey says sheepishly.

“Oh, don’t mention it. Please uh…please take care of that leg, okay? Don’t want an infection or anything. Who knows what’s on these docks,” he adds. The corners of his lips twitch a little. Was that supposed to be...a smile? 

“Oh. I definitely will. Thanks again,” Rey says as she walks over to her bike and hops on. She pedals away, trying to ignore the pain in her leg. She really should clean it up, but it’ll have to wait till after she meets with Klaud. She knows how he gets when she’s late, and she does not want to deal with that today.

“No problem,” the man trails off as he watches Rey ride away. He’s left standing alone in the middle of the fish market, wondering if he had imagined the freckles running across that cute little nose or if they had really scrunched up when she thanked him. He supposes he’ll probably never know.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this little nugget!
> 
> You can find me crying over Adam Driver's hair on twitter [here](https://twitter.com/benchewchewsolo) 😚


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